WATCH ABOVE: 16×9’s full story on accommodating children with allergies
How far should schools go to accommodate students with food allergies?
Over the past two decades, the number of kids with allergies has tripled, and nobody knows why. Experts are particularly troubled by the growing number of children who suffer from anaphylaxis, a potentially fatal reaction that can occur minutes within ingesting foods such as peanuts, dairy or eggs.
This leaves schools facing a conundrum: how far should they to go to protect children from being exposed to allergens? Peanuts have been banned from schools for ages. Should milk face the same fate?
READ MORE: Why are potentially deadly food allergies in kids on the rise?
At one elementary school in Hamilton, Ont., students have been forbidden from bringing any dairy products to class. That’s because one student, seven-year-old Elodie Glover, has a potentially life-threatening allergy to dairy and eggs.
Lynne wants milk to be banned from lunch boxes, just like peanut butter sandwiches.
WATCH: An extended interview with Elodie’s mother, Lynne Glover.
Milk is the most common food allergy among children, affecting up to three per cent of kids.
There is no cure for anaphylaxis, but attacks can be treated with an Epi Pen.
LIVE CHAT: How should schools accommodate kids with allergies?
After Lynne filed a human rights complaint, complaining that her daughter was being discriminated against, dairy products were banned from Elodie’s school. Lynne is happy – but many other parents are not. They say that milk is important for nutrition.
But Lynne is hoping for a little empathy.
“What if it was your child?” she asks.
WATCH: Producer Mia Sheldon talks about the story behind ‘No Milk Allowed,” the growing prevalence of children with food allergies and the debate over how schools should accommodate them.
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